Maybe You're The Problem

I have a distant relative who has never been very successful in marriage.  A few years ago, he was complaining to me about his third wife.  As he ranted on about all of her deficiencies and character flaws, it occurred to me that his complaints about her were amazingly similar to ones he had rehearsed to me on many occasions about his first and second wives.  He is no longer married to her.  These days he is complaining about his fourth wife.

That reminds me of this humorous fable I heard when I was a young boy:

One afternoon an old man decided to take a nap on the sofa.  While he was asleep, his two mischievous grandsons rubbed some Limburger cheese in his moustache. 

When he woke up he smelled the foul odor.  “This room stinks!” he thought and he went into the kitchen.  He sniffed around the kitchen and said, “The kitchen stinks too!”

No matter where he went in the house, the odor was there so he went outside to get some fresh air.  When he drew in a great big breath he was shocked to find that he could not escape the rank smell.  “The whole world stinks!” he concluded when all the time, the problem was right under his nose. 

Bert thought those four women were great when he married them but, before long, he discovered their faults and each one turned out to be a big disappointment.  I suggested to him, that maybe his problem wasn’t with his four wives; maybe the problem was him.  That was the last time he ever spoke to me and I haven't seen him in over 30 years.  I guess the truth hurts.

“There are persons who always find a hair in their plate of soup for the simple reason that, when they sit down before it, they shake their heads until one falls in.”

                                                                                                               -- Friedrich Hebbel